The Gustavus Thread

[gustavus]

For those of you that do not frequent the gold forum, were I have shared a few of the more interesting photos which I have scanned from glass plates found inside the wall of an old building being torn down.

You just never know were your going to find treasure, if the plates were for sale each would bring a minimum of $10.00, times that by 1200 and you have a nice payday of $12,000.00

[Bear]

I was helping tear down an old building a long time ago, and we were busting a block wall that had a few air pockets. We'd taken it down almost to the foundation, and were sitting on it at lunch. In the bottom of a pocket in the brick wall beside me were some chicken bones, left there when they were building it a hundred years before. Although any remnants of meat were totally dehydrated, the bones looked like they'd been put there yesterday

[Bear]

Nice job, BTW

[gustavus]

From another forum that I belong, I have a pending sale for a couple of prints from those old glass plates.

Below is a sample of what I'm doing. the grain elevator was shot with my Sony Alfa 900, when I printed the photo forgot to include margins. No big deal, cut and frame.

Posting a url to my images onto SMF no longer works for some reason, perhaps I've exceeded my quota.

[gustavus]

This is my first attempt at making a picture frame and I can tell you that even after watching some youtube videos it's not as easy as it looks. They forgot to show you how to measure the molding.

That inside rabbit on the rear of the molding that holds the picture, glass and backing has to be figured into your measurements.

The picture frame is made from that door and window molding that came out of an early 1900's house, slightly modified.

[gustavus]

From scrap BBQ's to riches.

I use Petrobond sand exclusively, and here's why. the foundry sand consists of Olivine Sand, Bentonite Clayalong with a blend of oil. The sand is so fine you could cast your fingerprint.


With Petrobond there's no need for extra venting as it contains no water, so there's never a chance for a steam explosion as an inexperienced backyard foundry-man could have using Green Sand. The later requires a lot of upkeep, whereas with the former requires very little maintenance for perfect castings every time.


Earlier on I said that I would do some castings from that intake manifold and water jacket from that Case Diesel engine, time and other interests do not permit. So all your going to get is this short expose.

Most of my patterns came from ebay, if I wanted a fishing weight mold I purchased the real thing, then used it for my pattern. What I soon came to realize is that I was buying castings from other back yard metal casters, the quality of the castings were not there.


For instance you should not use a fishing weight mold for a pattern that was originally die cast in a pressure mold, these types of castings have thin wall structure and are susceptible to warpage when introducing molten lead. Your lead runs out onto the ground.

Heavier wall castings, especially when used for SCUBA and Fishing weight molds, the excess aluminum acts as a heat sink - thus no warpage.

The fish mold was from a die casting procedure, look closely. The finished mold is now much heavier and thicker where it counts. How did I do that, I used auto body filler to modify the original casting.

Some of the materials I use, Plaster, Auto Body Filler, Modeling Clay, Wax, RTV Rubber, Wood and Plastic.

The scrap BBQ parts were an experiment, I no longer would even consider using this type of scrap when so much better is available.

My favorites are aluminum from engine blocks - high in silicon, outboard engines - high in copper, hydraulic pump casings, wheel rims.

To make life easier I purchased that pneumatic tamper in picture A7 below, what a time saver.

There are many different ways to make metal castings besides sand, lost foam, lost wax, pressure casting, die casting to name a few.

Lost Wax the pattern is made from wax encapsulated in plaster then burned out leaving an exact copy inside the plaster to accept the molten metal.

Lost Foam, the pattern is made by injecting tiny Styrofoam beads into a mold then injecting hot steam into the mold to expand the foam. There is a type of foam bead used by the duck hunters to make decoys.

The above description on lost foam is how the commercial foundry's do it, the backyard foundry man may just use a hot wire or simply hand carve, yes the pieces can be glued to form intricate patterns.

Next the finished foam pattern is dipped into a clay slurry, dried then packed in loose sand. Molten metal is now poured into the foam which now burns out the foam.

Pressure casting, molten metal is forced into a permanent mold, the mold is reusable many times over.

Die Casting, a slug of semi molten metal is deposited into the mold a die from above is hydraulically pressed into the hot semi molten slug which now resides in the bottom half of the mold forming the object.

Extruded Aluminum where the billet is heated via induction then forced through a die.

3D printers are the rage for making a quick pattern.

The home foundry furnace ,maybe heated using various fuels, it really does not take may BTU's to melt aluminum.

Hope you all enjoyed reading this as it's my last post tot he scrap forum, my interests in photography are demanding much of my time. It's been a blast, I've enjoyed being part of the community even though most of you deal in e-scrap a material I have little interest in.

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[DiamondN]

Hope you all enjoyed reading this as it's my last post tot he scrap forum, my interests in photography are demanding much of my time. It's been a blast, I've enjoyed being part of the community even though most of you deal in e-scrap a material I have little interest in.

I'm sorry to see you leave, as I have found your postings most interesting and informative.

Good Luck...

[gustavus]

Couldn't resist posting this WWI photo.along with the big boy and the dog.

[landmine]

Glad you are posting gustavus

[gustavus]

Glad you are posting gustavus

As long as everyone is happy with photo's, we're getting near the end of this very boring job.

Most of the photo's are Studio Shots, very unimaginative - a lot of children and adult pictures. On the upside I'm making enough $$$ to pay for this new Epson V-750 scanner.

I have a guy from another forum that wants to purchase two of the pictures, I'm holding him off until I order better photo paper for the printer.

Pat wants to purchase a smaller Photo printer, and I want a spindle shaper to make my own picture frame molding. With out frames you may as well just wipe your butt with the pictures they have little to no value.

What we have in mind for the smaller printer is to set up on weekends at the coffee shop were the tourists during the summer can come in and get prints made while you wait.

[gustavus]

Not exactly earth shattering news, we finally finished scanning all those vintage glass plates all 1450 of them, slightly over 40 gigabytes of data.

I've been busy researching molder / planers, originally settled on getting the Shop Fox until this little Hussey W7S showed up on Kijiji for $750.00. Waiting to hear if my offer has been accepted, if not it's back to the Fox.

With a molder you can used salvaged wood to make various moldings worth their weight in gold, especially if you get into reproduced moldings from old home restorations that is no longer available.

The knife grinders will grind any profile you want or need from a sample or drawing.

I just want cheap picture framing material.

The Fox comes with a stock feeder 0 -18 feet per minute while the older W7S has a fixed rate of feed but there is a variable stock feeder available and is preferred when working with hardwoods giving a much nicer finish - so I'm told.

The W7S is American made, has been in production since the mid 50's, the Fox is actually a Taiwanese clone. I'm not going to budge on my offer because by the time i add the new power feeder option the cost would be the same as a brand new Shop Fox. On the down side the Fox has a larger foot print, I'm running out of shop space.

[DiamondN]

I always wanted to pick up a molder/planer. For now, I get by just using my old shaper and table saw using a molding head. Any other custom moldings I needed, I've had to shop out. The one in the picture looks like a nice unit.

[gustavus]

I always wanted to pick up a molder/planer. For now, I get by just using my old shaper and table saw using a molding head. Any other custom moldings I needed, I've had to shop out. The one in the picture looks like a nice unit.

The guy was asking $750.00 I made an offer of $600.00 and left my number, he called back this afternoon to inform me that my offer was good to go. I see that t his model keeps its value regardless of age.

There are three sets of knives that the previous owner used for baseboard moldings and new knives are reasonably priced.

Did my homework on both the spindle shaper and the molder planer both of which are desirable pieces of equipment. The molder came in hands down for doing the wider boards whilst the spindle shaper shines for doing cabinetry work.

The nice thing about the W7S is that every model ever produced is upgradable to the newest and latest features.

For wood working equipment, I have a 20 inch industrial planer, cabinet table saw, 24 inch band-saw, older Rockwell lathe with lots of attachments and steady rests, belt sander, plus the norm for handheld electric goodies.

For metalworking, a commercial grade AC/DC stick welder plus my MIG, 70 amp plasma, 3 hp belt driven chop saw, metal lathe and a pile of scrap metal behind the shop that I saved for personal projects.

My shop is heated with a waste oil fired hot water boiler which is currently on a diet of veggie oil, I keep the shop and laboratory at a comfortable 65 degrees. Next year I'm going to plumb some of that heat into the house.

[RustyDollars]

That looks like a good buy on that Williams & Hussey. I have the Shop Fox clone simply because I got a good deal on one. They both use the same knives which run about $100 per profile. You will want to get the variable speed for the feeder as the best results will come from being able to cut the profile in one pass. I made an adjustable infeed-outfeed table for mine which I will snap a picture of if you are interested.

[gustavus]

That looks like a good buy on that Williams & Hussey. I have the Shop Fox clone simply because I got a good deal on one. They both use the same knives which run about $100 per profile. You will want to get the variable speed for the feeder as the best results will come from being able to cut the profile in one pass. I made an adjustable infeed-outfeed table for mine which I will snap a picture of if you are interested.

Love to see your set up for the in and out feed.

I had intended on leaving the house at 5:00 AM but dozed off until 9:30 AM so I got a late start, just walked in the door 7:00 PM. Having a quick coffee then loading up 8 box's of negatives to take back first thing in the morning, then it back home to make room inside the shop and unload that critter.

[Bear]

Best of luck on all that stuff, Gus, and of course, Happy Thanksgiving! ; )

[gustavus]

Best of luck on all that stuff, Gus, and of course, Happy Thanksgiving! ; )

Thanks, our Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, when I was a kid my family had roast Goose with our American friends from Blaine Washington at our home then celebrated with them come November at their home in the US.

[gustavus]

Ran a piece of 100 year old fir through the molder this afternoon, the power feed does not work. The previous owner ran it without oil and stripped the little brass crown gear, I've already put out a parts request from William & Hussey.

Even by force feeding the stock through the finished product came out smooth and ready to use had I a use for that particular molding style, no sanding required. The knives that came with the machine are the black nitride which is a few grades better than HSS.

After showing the little woman the finished molding from this afternoons run she's more impressed than I am, I see the wheels turning already.

Scrap wood into dollars, just have to run my metal detector over the salvaged wood for hidden nails and screws.

[DiamondN]

Good to see you got the molder up and running. I've seen a few guys over the years ruin their planer knives by missing just one hidden nail in old lumber.

[BarrenRealms007]

I'm glad all is working out for you. TTYS